On first day of 2015, Mangalyaan completes 100 days in orbit around Mars

Chennai: The first day of 2015 marks 100 days of India's spacecraft orbiting Mars. The orbiter, named Mangalyaan, was successfully inserted into the red planet's orbit on September 24, 2014, mkaing India the first nation to achieve such the milestone on its first attempt.

A spokesperson for the Indian Space Research Organisation, or Isro, said the satellite is performing normally. The space agency will hold a seminar later today to analyse lessons learnt and the achievements from the mission so far.

K Radhakrishnan, former chairman, Isro said the India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), powered by smart satellites, has shown the world the way of doing things differently without making any sacrifice on the quality in space mission.

The Mars mission, which was primarily a technological one, is India's first interplanetary mission to the planet. India is the first Asian country, and Isro the fourth space agency, to successfully send a satellite to Mars.

The orbiter craft has been designed to orbit Mars in an elliptical orbit. One of its main objectives is to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission.

India's mission has been lauded also for its low price tag of $74 million, or about a fourth of NASA's, which means more countries could likely turn to India for help in placing their satellites.

The Chandrayaan-1 - India's first unmanned moon probe - cost $79 million and was launched to map the moon's surface and look for precious metals.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

All material, information, data, images or content on this website is subject to copyright or other applicable intellectual property laws and no part of it can be reproduced in any form (including paper or electronic form) without prior written consent and approval from IBEF. Infringements are subject to prosecution under the applicable laws. For consent related queries and conditions, please write to info.brandindia@ibef.org